


Grandfather's Wisdom

by petrovafossil



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Fix-It, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Force Ghost Leia Organa, Force Ghost Luke Skywalker, Force Ghost Padmé Amidala, Gen, Kylo Ren Redemption, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-21
Updated: 2019-12-21
Packaged: 2021-02-26 01:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,312
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21885007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petrovafossil/pseuds/petrovafossil
Summary: Anakin Skywalker has some words for his grandson.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 97





	Grandfather's Wisdom

**Author's Note:**

> I bashed this out in two hours during a hellish bus journey. I have a lot of thoughts about The Rise of Skywalker and almost all of them are about how Anakin Skywalker and Ben Solo deserved better. Enjoy

"Hey kid."

It's the voice of a young man, world-weary and tired. Ben Solo doesn't recognise it, and yet it sounds overwhelmingly familiar. He hears it emanating from behind him, but also somehow inside his own mind. As though it's a part of his own conscience. Slowly, he turns.

Behind him, a ghostly figure, about a head taller than Solo himself. The man has the same thick dirty-blond hair as Ben's uncle Luke, and though the man is visibly exhausted, Ben sees the same faint glimmer of hope and vitality in his eyes that he always associated with his mother. The figure wears the billowing robes of a Jedi, and he is smiling in a sad sort of way. Deep down, Ben knows who he is looking at, though he doesn't dare speak a word.

"I hear you're my biggest fan, young Solo," the ghostly man says, an attempt at lightening the mood, but despite his youthful appearance, this is a man whose days of carefree levity are far behind him. 

"Grandfather," Ben breathes, overcome with awe and terror, "Lord Vader-"

"My name is Anakin Skywalker," the man insists. "I once went by that hideous name, and I committed hideous acts under that guise."

Anakin's face darkens. He and Ben are silent for a moment, Solo scarcely able to believe that the man he has idolised for most of his young life stands before him now. 

"You're a talented young man, Ben," Anakin says fondly, "you have the makings of a fine Jedi."

"The Jedi are dead," snaps Ben, "you killed them, every one of them. You were the greatest Sith that ever lived and I will succeed your great legacy! The Sith will rise!" 

"Don't go this way Ben," says Anakin, "this isn't your destiny. You know it as well as I do. You're a good man."

"I will far exceed even you," Ben shrieks, "I will be the greatest Sith that ever lived! Palpatine will-" 

"Palpatine! That snake, that demon of a man, is no ally of yours," Anakin cries, "he gets inside your head like a parasite and rots your brain, Ben. He twisted me into a despicable creature, a shell of a human being, and he destroyed me. I will not let that happen to you. It's not too late, my boy." 

"I killed my father!" 

Ben chokes back a sob but he cannot pretend; tears begin to fall from his eyes.

"I murdered Han Solo," he cries, "and not a day goes by that I don't... that I don't regret it! I'm a murderer, a monster! There is no going back!" 

Ben is weeping openly now; putting into words this black, festering guilt he's been holding inside him has finally made it real. He is no Sith. However his heart has been poisoned, he cannot be pulled away from the light. But it's too late for him now, after what he has done. How could he possibly atone for his crimes? His fate is sealed. 

But Anakin is smiling. He knew his grandson was not a lost cause, and Anakin knows what he must do. 

"Ben," he says kindly, "it is never too late to redeem yourself. If I can be forgiven, anyone can be forgiven, child. My family has taught me that."

As he says this, more ghostly apparitions start to appear behind Anakin. Ben sees them through his tears, like a sea serpent looking up at the sun. There is his mother Leia, and a sharp pain sears through Ben's heart to have his suspicions confirmed: she has become one with the Force. She looks younger now than he's ever seen her, her hair chestnut brown and flowing loose around her shoulders, her eyes bright and glowing with love for her child. Ben's heart could burst with love for his brave, bold mother. 

At her side, her brother Luke, also much younger. Gone is Luke's deep frown and pained gait: he's restored to the vitality and energy of his youth, and he and Anakin share a knowing smile before he takes his sister's hand. Ben sees with unmistakable clarity the open-hearted, idealistic Jedi his uncle had once been, and is filled with hope for his own future. 

Finally, an unfamiliar figure. A petite young woman with wild, thick brunette curls bouncing around her head, and dozens of tiny lilac blossoms woven into her hair. She wears a huge, flowing gown and cape in regal purple, and carries herself with the dignity and grace of a queen. 

"Grandmother," Ben gasps, and as soon as he realises who she is, the family resemblances become immediately apparent. Leia inherited Padme's bravery, her poise, her beauty. Luke has his mother's romantic nature, her yearning for a better life, the traits that would shape him into the great Master he became. Ben is overcome. So blinded was he by the magnitude of his grandfather's evil deeds, he failed to see the immense power of the light side of the Force. Padme's kindness and strength, Anakin's prodigious talent, Luke's unwavering faith, Leia's grit and determination: these are the values of the light side, and they are all within him. If he can harness these gifts, he can achieve greatness, far more than under the dark tutelage of Palpatine.

Padme stands at her husband's side, and he wraps a protective arm around her shoulders. She is safe and comfortable in his embrace, and smiles up at him, before turning her attention to her grandson. 

"Ben, my sweet," she says, "Anakin Skywalker did not do those terrible things. Anakin Skywalker did not kill me. Darth Vader did. Darth Vader is gone: a dark echo of a world gone by." 

Padme looks towards her bright, brilliant son and daughter. 

"Luke and Leia stood up to Darth Vader. They rescued Anakin Skywalker from his grasp. That same Skywalker blood flows through your veins, my sweet, and we see who you really are. What has gone before cannot be undone, and we must not get lost in it. We must learn from it."

"Kylo Ren killed Han Solo," agrees Anakin, "Ben Solo didn't. We need him back."

The youngest Skywalker, the last of that venerable bloodline, feels a great weight lifting from his shoulders. He is buoyed by the love and forgiveness of his family, who saw through him the way only family can, to see the good person that had not yet been poisoned by the machinations of the Emperor. 

"What must I do," Ben asks, steadying his breathing, readying himself for the journey that still lies ahead. 

"The girl Rey," says Anakin, "is in serious trouble. We will do what we can to help her, but there is a darkness deep within her soul, and we can sense that she may struggle to overcome it. You and she are the last hope for the Jedi. You must go to her, Ben. You of all people may be able to bring her back from the brink. Stop Palpatine, and save Rey."

Rey. Ben's stomach lurches thinking about her. She was right after all. She saw him for who he really was, even after he - even after Kylo Ren - treated her so abysmally. He cringes to think how Kylo Ren tortured the girl, dragged the most painful memories from the deepest corners of her psyche and used them to manipulate her. But he is not Kylo Ren any more. He is Ben Solo, son of Han Solo and Leia Organa Skywalker. It is their legacy he must honour, not Darth Vader's. 

Ben looks down at the lightsaber in his hand - the saber that killed Han Solo - and with a cry of anguish, throws it into the swirling depths of the ocean. 

He takes one last look at the Skywalker ghosts; his family, finally united and at peace. 

"Thank you," he says, "I won't let you down."


End file.
